‘GIGO’ – Garbage In, Garbage Out.

‘Garbage in, garbage out’, is one of the truisms of the computer age. Charles Babbage, the father of modern computing, however commented – ‘On two occasions I have been asked, “Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?” … I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.’ The concept of GIGO goes back to 1960s, however with the speed of modern day computers they can generate a great deal of garbage. So make sure that all the contact data you put into your database is correct to ensure you can have multi-channel communications with your prospects and customers.

Once you have the data the next stage is to identify what is garbage, some ‘garbage’ may be worth something.

The German artist Gustav Metzger’s had a piece of work displayed at Tate Britain it consisted of cardboard and paper wrapped in a plastic see-through rubbish bag.

When the cleaning lady came in at night and saw a bag of rubbish sitting on the floor she threw it in the bin. Clearly she didn’t know the creation she was throwing away was art… in her mind she was throwing away rubbish.

Imagine the artist’s chagrin when he came in the next morning and found his ‘piece’ missing. The artwork was eventually dug out of the bin and put back on display. However Metzger did produce a new bag with new rubbish in it.

It pays to keep an open mind, we can help with your Data Management. The more you understand your customer or prospect the better you can deploy your marketing resources across today’s multi-channel media. Our range of services will help you take control of your data.